THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Travels East of Suez Hindu Columns at Kutub Minar, Delhi. Travels East of Suez BY RACHEL HUMPHREYS, F.R.G.S. ^Author of "Algiers, the Sahara and the Nile" HEATH, CRANTON & OUSELEY LTD. FLEET LANE, LONDON, E.G. -t'3 Hff t CONTENTS THROUGH THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST - 7 ADEN TO CEYLON - 13 COLOMBO 1 5 THE BURIED CITIES - 25 KANDY 3 1 THE TEA GARDENS AND NUWAHA ELIYA 38 COLOMBO AGAIN - 46 CALCUTTA - 54 THE INDIAN RIFLE FACTORY 67 SUNRISI ON THE HIMALAYAS - JO SAM SING 78 INDIAN CUSTOMS 88 INDIAN MARRIAGE CEREMONY - - 102 BENARES AND LUCKNOW 114 AGRA - 129 FATEPUR SIKRI 135 DELHI - 148 BOMBAY 154 BURMA AND RANGOON - 170 " ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY " 1 80 THI IRRAWADDY - 192 BHAMO 198 THE RIVER AND CUSTOMS - 206 BURMESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS - - - 216 List of Illustrations FACING PACK A BURMESE BEAUTY, BHAMO 200 A CURVE ON THE DARJEELING RAILWAY 70 A STREET IN AGRA 128 "AN AWKWARD MEETING" - 79 BENARES - 114 BHAMO, UPPER BURMA 203 BHUTIAN WOMEN 100 BHUTIANS AT DARJEELING 96 BREAKFAST IN THE SHWE DAGON PAGODA, RANGOON 171 DOING " PUJAH " BY THE WAYSIDE IN CEYLON 28 DRAWING WATER, INDIA - 62 ENTRANCE TO SHWE DAGON PAGODA, RANGOON - I 73 GATHERING TEA, CEYLON 41 GROUP OF HINDUS - 55 HINDU COLUMNS AT KUTUB MINAR, DELHI - Frontispiece LASCARS ARRIVING AFTER DISINFECTION AT SUEZ 168 MENDING A BRIDGE, CEYLON 48 MOSQUE AT KUTUB MINAR, DELHI - 158 NATIVE FERRY BOAT, TEESTA RIVER, DOOARS 84 NATIVE REFRESHMENT STALL AT WAYSIDE INDIAN STATION 110 READY FOR THE START, SAM SING 81 RUINS AT KUTUB MINAR, DELHI 103 SHWE DAGON PAGODA, RANGOON - - 2 1 9 THE ARAKAN PAGODA, MANDALAY 1 80 THE BROKEN BRIDGE, CEYLON - 17 THE CHANDNI CHAUK, DELHI 148 THE GREAT IMAGE, ARAKAN PAGODA 190 THE " HATHI PILIN' TEAK," RANGOON 178 THE POTTER AT HIS WHEEL, AGRA 140 WAITING FOR THE FERRY, IRRAWADDY - 194 WAITING FOR THE TRAIN, INDIA - 126 WAYSIDE SCENE, CEYLON 10 CHAPTER I. THROUGH THE EASTERN GATEWAY. DEAR , You remember, 'don't you, that you said you wanted to have the second volume of my wanderings in the East, especially in India, Ceylon, and Burmah ? Well, I will tell you of the sunny days " East of Suez." Did you know that I had really fixed to go with C to the West Indies ? Now for a bit that you will scoff at. I interviewed a clairvoyante, being supposed to be somewhat psychic myself. Quoth she : ' ' You are thinking of a voyage and are going to India." This was in the September before I started. "No," I replied. " Yes, I see India most clearly." Still I said emphatically " No." ' Well, do you mind telling me why you are so positive? ' " Because my passage is already booked and the cabin chosen on the for the West Indies." " Ah, I'm sorry, but I am sure you will go East and not West." At the end of the next month we veered round, and the East it was. Now, what do you say to that? Well, I cannot say I was sorry, as " once you've 'card the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else "; and the spell grew stronger and stronger with every 8 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ turn of the screws which bring us quickly to Port Said. Port Said, the despised, the refuse heap for all the nations of the East, is nevertheless a name to conjure with, as it is the gate of the East the East with all its mysteries, its glamour, its history, its wonders. The first glimpse of Eastern dress is delightful : such a complete change from the last place ashore Marseilles. Here the Arabs are in their long garments down to their feet, and their red fez on their heads. At first one believes they are women, till one remembers they would be veiled. Crowds of little boats come round to take you ashore, the rowers black as ink perhaps, coming up from Somaliland, or brown in tint from the desert. The unceasing shrill chatterings of all of them make a strange sound to one's ears ; it is quite musical ever rising and falling like a number of birds in a state of jubilation. One cannot help a thrill of excitement as one sees all the gaily-coloured crowds about. It is vastly amusing to walk up the chief street from the landing place. All the shopkeepers are at their doors inviting you in to see all their treasures this place the best for feathers, this for the finest embroideries in the world, this for the best cigarettes, etc. In one shop we were looking at parasols, when the polite Armenian implored our friend who was escorting us to look at some pyjamas. This rather embar- rassed him in the presence of ladies, and he made a discreet bolt for the door, not knowing what might be offered to him next ! GATEWAY OF THE EAST 9 What a lively scene it is to watch, under the shady trees which line the street, groups sitting on the footpath outside the chief hotel, surrounded by hawkers of beads, necklaces, ornaments, feathers almost everything ; fortune-tellers squat- ting on the ground, gravely reading the hands of grey-haired men who would scorn to be seen doing such a thing in Europe ! Conjurors have a little group round them, showing their prowess in making one chicken into two; " Gully, gully, gully," says he, and lo ! the poor little wretched yellow chick is presumably torn in two, and behold a pair ! The sherbet-seller in his shining panoply of brass jugs, trays, glasses and big can, tinkling the brass together to attract attention ; the little ' ' street Arabs " (literally so here) playing about, bumping in one's way, and scuttling off when you come out with a strong " Imshi." A word or two of suitable strength in their own tongue has a wonderful effect on natives in most parts. The}?- give you credit for a large vocabulary, and treat you with more respect; and, what is better, keep their distance. The row back to the ship in a small boat at night was most picturesque. Through the crowd of shipping, brilliantly lighted up, we picked our way out to the steamer, which was surrounded by rafts of coal, on which large braziers were being burnt to light the Arab coalers, the very scummiest of the scum of humanity, men and women on their way up and down, tilting the coal into the bunkers. It really would have done for a study of "stoking up the underworld," the blackness of the coal, the io TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ blazing fires, the sparks flying up into the dark night, and these figures flitting about. Port Said is the largest coaling station in the world, and is famous for the rapidity with which the work is done. Two hundred tons can be shipped in one hour. Think of a nice bright spring day, soft air, bright sunshine and blue sky, a day England sometimes gives us in the spring of the year. Such was December nth at Port Said, where the big P. and O. Maloja was majestically resting in the mouth of the canal waiting for the mail boat from Brindisi. We had already been there twent3 r -four hours, when the I sis arrived, panting and throbbing from her race across the Mediterranean, bringing letters and parcels and a few passengers to join us. Twenty-three knots an hour this little vessel of 1,700 tons can do, and that means more vibration than one would really care to have ! How small she looks lying close alongside the big Maloja of 12,500 tons, her deck not even reaching the spar- deck of the latter, and what a change of scene; the donkey-engine had been ready all the morning to work the huge cranes which now first swung up enormous planks to act as gangways, pushed into place by an army of Arabs, as well as by the Lascars on the boat. I say Arabs, but all races seemed to be there, the real Arab, the whitey-brown Egj r ptian, the Indian, the real black from Somaliland, the Nubian with his three tribe cuts on his cheek and black skin and shining eyes and teeth the latter do shine without a doubt all hurrying, shouting, gesticulating, making an extraordinary din. Then \Yayside Scene, Ceylon. GATEWAY OF THE EAST n comes the voice of the headman shouting orders, the hatches are opened, and as each man shoulders a sack, a wooden tally is given him, which he gives up to the checker on the Maloja as he shoots his load down and is off again to pick up another. In the well-deck a heap soon gathers, and Lascars pitch the sacks over the hatch down into the depths below, where others are on the watch for them. A weird cry is given each time ; and black faces and bright turbaned heads quickly draw back out of the line of fire should I rather say throw ? Bang goes another sack, labelled Bombay perhaps, Auckland Ceylon all are marked and stowed away in the order in which they are to come out. The Indian and East African are coming off at Aden, while those for Ceylon and Straits Settle- ments go on to Colombo, and the Australian bags have a good long rest before they are unpacked, when the Maloja reaches her long journey's end. All this began at midday ; and throughout the long afternoon the scurrying goes on, up to dinner- time ; then when we go out on deck afterwards the scene has changed from sunlight to a weird picture like a stage scene ; the electric lights hung up in all directions throw a brilliant light on a most lurid group. Still shouting, still scurrying, still ges- ticulating with outstretched hand, the blacks are working, the 9,000 bags are not yet on, nor the 500 cases of parcel post. It is like a huge ant-heap ; and to watch the faces of the passengers as they lean over the taffrail shows what an absorbing sight it is. One could stand as one did for hours 12 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ watching them. At last it gets finished ; the Port Police in uniform and red fez take a final look round ; the planks are attached to the rope, and hooked up by the crane, and stacked out of the way on the Maloja; the siren gives a fierce hoot, and away the little goddess goes ; salutes are exchanged by the officers and men, parting hand- shakes, and parting hits among the natives, too ! Now the vessel has gone, and the bridge of planks must be hitched off over the side, down into the sea as it seemed, but no, a small boat has run under, and another one has arrived at the critical moment to take them off. Every one now rushes to the bow to watch the slow entry into the Suez Canal ; four bells (ten o'clock) sound before we start, and majestically, with huge searching flashlight ahead, the big ship, going almost on her own weigh, enters the darkness. The electric light has a very peculiar effect on the sandy banks, making them appear like snow, and any figures that may be about look ghostly in the clear atmosphere. The stars are all wonderfully bright, twinkling a welcome to us calling us back to the East that overwhelming call ! who can resist it ? CHAPTER II. ADEN TO CEYLON. THE approach to Aden is very fine, the high rocky mountains stand out in the blazing sunshine rugged and bare and sharp of outline. It does not bear the best of names ; for instance, quite recently a man and his wife were going back from the shore to the boat, and when half-way the men stopped for baksheesh gold and had to be threatened with a revolver before they would go on. One lands at Steamer Point amid a crowd of queer, very queer, vehicles, all ready to drive visitors to the Tanks, the only objective in Aden. These are enormous pits hollowed out of the side of the rock to hold water, so they are really the reservoirs to hold the rain which is expected once a year, but of late years has hardly come so often. The Tanks are attri- buted to King Solomon. The heat is intense, reflected from the high rocks on either side not a blade of grass nor a plant to be seen a few trees, banyans and palms, but the arid rocks look grimly down on them and seem almost to forbid their growth. A vulture was sitting motionless up on one of their jutting out-points. It is certainly a very desolate spot, and most hopeless-looking when the pits are dry, as that means that all the water has to be distilled from the sea. One of the features i 4 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ of Aden, by the way, is the camel carts, which are constantly drawing water about. The Ancient Mariner might well say there : " Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink." Some of our regiments are quartered in Aden, and I fancy the Tommies must find it pretty dull, though many officers whom I know speak well of the time they spent there. Scenic effect is excellent, at any rate ; the presence of particles of desert sand in the air increases the marvellous sunset colours in fact, that is really the reason why sunsets are so very wonderful when one is an} r where near a desert. The one that evening was typical, a perfectly hard line, like the arc of a circle, dividing pale green from deep-blue sky flecked with white clouds, then deepening into rose and crimson, and at last the reddest of red glow behind the sharp-cut peaks of the mountains, which showed up in won- derful contrast. There is a mystery about this wonderful Eastern colour. Who was the god of colour ? Surely there was one, and no wonder at his being worshipped or was it only the Sun God that was the origin of it all ? To see the full moon rise behind these peaks, too, was a joy ; it seemed so huge in that clear atmosphere, and sailed up in extraordinarily quick time; first came the silvery light behind the black mountain, then a tiny streak of moon, and while you watched, the whole moon came into full view. Some of the passengers most irreverently compared it to a stage moon, it was so rapid in its rise ! CHAPTER III. COLOMBO. FROM Aden we had a splendid voyage to Colombo, where we arrived in the early morning, so our first view of the Paradise of the Hast was the best possible. The harbour is very interesting, and has not the dirty look about it which many harbours have. Catamarans were plentiful the native boats, which are simply a tree trunk, dug out and then flattened at the top. From this is balanced a kind of raft, consisting of two poles of wood at right angles, about ten feet long, and connected at the end by a float ; and in bad weather one, two or three men go out and sit on the cross-piece to keep it balanced, and so the saying, a " one man," ' two man," or " three man " breeze, originated. What makes the entry into Colombo so charming is the fact that you walk straight up from a very good pier through a wide open space, into one of the chief streets, so that no objectionable and squalid parts are passed. It all looked so delightful that, even before going to our hotel, we got into a motor and took a look round for a couple of hours. Motors there have their hoods up, as the sun is nearly vertical ; and solar topees and umbrellas or thick sunshades are absolutely necessary. It is evident how near the equator one is, when one looks for one's i6 shadow ; it is there not carrying out an Eastern greeting may your shadow never grow less ! for there is hardly any of it, in the middle of the day it is just beneath you ! The joy of that motor run was enhanced by contrast with our voyage, and by having had nothing but sea to look at for so long, but the beauty of it was all its own such roads, rare tunnels of palm trees of all kinds, hedges of crotons, flowering shrubs rioting with blossoms of all colours, the picturesquely-built bungalows with no chimneys and no fantastic architecture, such as we get in Bngland nowadays, to mar their beauty, all set back from the road in gardens of choice greenhouse flowers, as we should call them at home. Then the natives, how quaint they look "chocolate soldiers " the men mostly bare to the waist, with either a loin cloth or a skirt of white material pleated round them, their long glossy black hair being rolled up into a knot at the back, and with their ear-rings and the wonderful tortoise-shell comb of semi-circular shape, worn on their heads they give the impression of being women. This comb is only worn by the men after the age of twenty-five ; they are quite expensive ornaments, being made from the hawk's bill turtle, and cost about sixteen rupees or a guinea. It is really very charming to see the waiters at the hotels, all in white coats and skirts, with these combs on their heads. Talking of servants makes one think of the first night at the Galle Face Hotel. I had to go down a long corridor to my room, and as it happened I The Broken Bridge, Ceylon. COLOMBO 17 was rather late going up to bed, when round the corner I got a fearful shock at seeing these native servants, each one lying flat on a white sheet outside the doors of their masters' rooms. They looked for all the world like a lot of corpses laid out; it is the usual thing, I found afterwards, for the travelling servants to sleep thus. My servant, a black as ink Mohammedan, whom I had engaged through friends, did not want to come to Ceylon, as he says in the following letter, so I met him later at Calcutta : ' Please Miss Sahib, I most humbly and respectfully beg to lay these following few lines before your kind consideration that Miss M. has been engage me for you and only I am waiting for you and I have send a letter before hoping you will get it soon and I shall be highly thankful if you kindly reply soon as you get these letters as Mrs. M. wrote me to meet you at Colombo I am glad to come but there is corntine they will keep me in Hospital for ten days so I think it will be much better I shall meet Miss Sahib at Calcutta. I will be there before 2 days in the office of Thomas Cooks in Calcutta I will stay there for you kindly enquire me at arrival time and please kindly inform me when you will meet me at Calcutta and in what ship you are coming let me know name of ship Please Miss Sahib kindly send two letters i for Thomas Cook & Son Calcutta and i letter to my house that it will meet me soon Hoping you will excuse me 1 8 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ for this trouble for God I beg to remain please Miss Sahib your most humble servant." All that, and only one stop ! This is the other letter he speaks of, evidently written by another Babu :- " HONOURED MADAM, " I beg to say I have received a letter through Thomas Cook & Son Bombay from Mrs. M. saying that she has been recommended me to your ladyship to travel in India, I am accept it and quite willing to meet you any place Calcutta or Bombay. I cannot come to Colombo because there is quarantane for Plage. Please write me to Lucknow and also a letter C/o Thomas Cook & Son Calcutta. I will meet you in Calcutta. Please answer. 11 Your obedient servant, " IMDAD ALT." So we had to wait till we found him in Calcutta, or, rather, he found us, about which more anon ! The trees shade the roads and streets in Colombo gloriously, some called Katu Imbul or rain trees, because at night the leaves curl up and the moisture condenses, and then when they burst open again at sunrise, this moisture is thrown out like a miniature shower of rain. The streets and roads are a rich red colour, which is most helpful to the eyes, as if they were white, I don't know how anyone would see, the glare of the tropical sun would be so intense ; but the red dust is fatal to one's clothes. The way they all live in public is so amusing to the Western eye ; there are neither COLOMBO 19 doors, windows nor shutters to the native shops and houses, especially in the road beyond Colpetty. Toilets are made in public, if you can call them by such a dignified name, when the performance only consists of washing at the nearest tap, coiling up the long hair into a " knob," and setting the comb on it. A few deft turns and twists are enough to fasten the skirt, and the Cingalee native is ready for the day ! If he wants to be shaved he walks a few steps, finds a barber, and they both squat down on their haunches opposite each other, at a street corner for preference, or just under the shade of a tree. The shoe-maker or mender will sit on the footway if there is one, or in the street if not, and does repairs while you wait. The shops are hung with their own specialities, fruits of all possible kind and vegetables, curry ingredients, which are many and various, in allusion to which I may say that at one friend's house no less than eight different things were handed round with the rice and curry, which you are expected to pile up on the top of the rice, and then mash up with a spoon ; whatever happens, you must eat it with a spoon, to do otherwise argues yourself a sad ignoramus of Oriental customs. One peculiarity strikes a stranger, and that is the washing of one's clothes in the central lake, or ' tank " as the local term is for it. This is quite a large sheet of water in the very centre of Colombo, with lovely bungalows round, roads winding by, and fringed with palm trees. In the water, stand- ing waist deep, are the dhobies banging the linen 20 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ on to the rocks a most economical way of proceed- ing for them; but, alas for one's clothes ! In this lake are also washed the bullocks and their carts, and also any passer-by who would like a dip; and I must say the Cingalese are awfully fond of a bath in any water they come to. But all this does not impart a hue of snowy whiteness to one's linen, and one sometimes wonders where it spent the night to be ironed. I got into the way of sending it off one night and having it back next evening, so that it should not be long in the native hands, as the dhobi caste is quite a low one, and therefore there are queer dwellings for the men of laundresses there are none. The only drawback to that was that the dhobi always brought the washing back just when one was getting ready for dinner, and would insist in coming into one's room, regardless of one's attire, and arranging the clothes out on the bed, then gravely salaaming, w r ould wait to be paid. Certainly the view of the lake from some of the gardens of the bungalows is very entrancing, the water peeping out between the trees with their lovely flowers, bamboos hanging in graceful fringes, the dark-leaved hibiscus with its glorious flowers of crimson, pale yellow blooms on the lettuce tree, and tall plaintain or bananas waving their huge leaves aloft. But the full beauty is seen in some of the roads, bordered with lovely gardens, with bungalows set back well from the road ; perhaps the hedges are of crotons, or canna in full flower, great palms with cocoanuts ripe and ready to drop COLOMBO 21 from a tunnel overhead, and to ride through these at dusk is charming, with the silent-footed coolie padding along, drawing your rubber-tyred rickshaw so silently that you can hear the wonderful buzzing and song of the night insects quite a feature of tropical life, and most musical. Always directly after sunset, at the first hint of dusk, they begin with their busy hum, the whole lighted up with bril- liant flies winging their mysterious flights in the air among the trees. Then the banyan trees are a great source of wonder, the extremely long branches sent out from the parent stem get too heavy for their own weight, and send down a rootlet, which, when it touches the ground, takes root, and grows and thickens, till a new stem is formed ; and some- times the circumference of these trees becomes enormous, and forms quite a shelter place. The cinnamon-gardens used to be out in the suburbs, and were the chief feature of the place when the hymn, " Waft, waft ye spicy breezes, from Ceylon's lovely isle ' was composed, but they have disappeared to a great extent to give place to bungalows, with their large " compounds," as I should call the gardens. Naturally, in these alluring groves, birds are to be found of many kinds, with brightly-hued plumage, and various calls, new to one's ear. The crows, of course, are ubiquitous ; they are the scavengers, and right well do they perform their duties. A dead rat on the road does not lie there long before it is taken possession of by these noisy folk. In the Galle Face Hotel, printed 22 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ notices are put up in the bedrooms warning visitors not to leave anything lying about on account of the black crows. I at first laughed at this, till, one morning, I had moved a small table within sight of the window with the remains of mangoes and papaw fruit on it and a spoon on the plate, and while I walked the length of the room three of these observant birds were on the table eating up the remains ! For impudence, watchfulness, noisy talkativeness, commend me to a Ceylon crow ! iThey have no respect for place or person. Along the road one often sees the betel-sellers with a little heap in front of them, or carrying a little stand or frame, which holds the curved-up leaves of the betel, in which are areca nut finely sliced up, chunam or lime made from burnt oyster shells, or coral. This the natives chew, much in the same way as some nations do tobacco or gum ; it is supposed to have a soothing effect on them, but it stains their lips and teeth a horrible red, which looks too suggestive of blood. Every native has a box somewhere amongst his scanty garments containing this trinity of delicacies ; and the rich native generally has a silver one in which he carries his ; and old betel boxes are quite valuable, as they represent a custom which dates back before the present era. It gives rise to a good trade; you see simply heaps of the leaves stacked up in the shops, all ready to be filled up with the ingredients. I bought one of these, ready rolled up, at a station one day and examined it, and at the next station presented it to a native on the platform, who took COLOMBO 23 it with delighted grins, but was evidently wonder- fully surprised at a white woman having such a thing. About twenty tons of these leaves are sent from one place alone every week, and it is estimated that thousands of tons are used in Colombo alone. It is really quite a pretty sight to see a betel-seller with his little stand squatting on the ground by the roadside, patiently waiting for customers. The clubs of Colombo are a great feature, with charming gardens, which, at dusk, on Sunday evenings particularly, are lighted up with Chinese lanterns, while the military band plays. On one of the evenings I was there, the Governor and his party were having tea ; he arrived with a sort of little state procession, two outriders in native dress in front and behind his carriage, with lances held aloft, and flowing pennons. The golfers have a splendid club-house and fine links, to which an additional flavour is given by sometimes being partially flooded as well as by having a tank, there- fore some of the drives have to go across the water. The caddies, of course, being very lightly clothed, think nothing of jumping into this water to retrieve the balls ; they soon dry themselves in the sun ! The Garden Club is devoted to tennis and croquet, and is quite as popular, if not so picturesque, as the others. The residents of Ceylon are most hospitable; as soon as they know your boat is in, they flock to call, and rival each other in invitations, and enter- tain you royally. They are not like the insular English at home, who call and say, " I hope we 24 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ shall see something of you ' ' ; but they arrive and say, " We"ll go to the club now, shall we? " and off one starts in rickshaws ; or a friend calls at breakfast time and arranges something for you for that day. Naturally, as Ceylon is only about six degrees from the equator, all festivities take place in the evening, as those who can give up the time are invisible during the middle hours of the day. CHAPTER IV. THE BURIED CITIES. A LONG run by rail to Anuradhapura well repays one for the hot, dusty journey, by the glorious scenery one passes through ; real jungle in many parts, with palms perhaps rearing their slender stems one hundred feet in the air festooned with creepers, which climb from tree to tree; climbing lilies of varied hues, Bhuddha's trees, shorter, and covered with what at first sight looks like flowers, but which in reality is the underpart of the leaf. The legend is that Buddha, having lost his way in the jungle while out one night (even the gods cannot always find the way home from their club), these trees, by the wind blowing up their leaves, lighted him home, and so were called by his name ever after. Add to these, an undergrowth of ferns, creeping plants, flowering shrubs in a tangle of infinite loveliness, and over all fluttering and hovering myriads of butterflies, large and small, of innumerable colours, the dark rich blues, the mauves and purples, tiny yellow ones, and gay- coloured birds, so that one never finds the ride wearisome with such wealth of nature to watch. Anuradhapura, for 1,000 years the ancient capital of Ceylon, was a city built in the third century B.C., the buildings all referring to Buddhism. The 26 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ account of these old temples has been well preserved by the Cingalese by means of " olas," made from palm leaves, on which the events of ancient times were written. The shrines or temples were called Dagobas, and were always bell-shaped ; some enormous, others quite small ; some contain enough masonry to build a huge town ; they generally end in a queer cupola at the top, and go by the name of dagoba. Round these temples are endless numbers of pillars, many of them leaning at most acute angles, the bases being buried deep in the earth. The Brazen Palace, which contained 1,600 of these pillars, was a large building for the monks of their religion ; the soil has in course of time gradually accumulated on the floors of marble of this once magnificent palace. They have a very peculiar effect now, standing nearly all at an angle amongst the jungle. The whole place teems with these peculiar ruins, and doubtless, if more excavations could go on, much would be discovered. It is very interesting driving about these half- buried places ; one sees great baths, almost covered by greenery and overhung by the palms and plantains, monkeys are running happily about, and birds of paradise flit among the smaller trees. In the little streams and ditches, water-tortoises are seen, or else they are sunning themselves on the banks, where no doubt lurk cobras and other kinds of snakes. Fortunately, I did not come across one, though at the hotel I carefully looked under the bed and in the corners for them at night, as the 27 room was on the ground floor, and opened by three doors on to the garden. I was told by a resident afterwards that I need not have done that; it was much more necessary to look under the pillow ! Snakes like warmth, and will creep into beds. After that, I always lifted my pillow before going to bed, and if I forgot, I used to wake up half asleep, but too afraid to put my hand under in the dark, for fear of finding one. There is a poisonous snake, which goes by the name of the ticpolonga, and this and the cobra always fight when they meet. The reason is given in the legend that a cobra met a ticpolonga one day in the hot season, when no water was anywhere to be found ; but the latter had evidently had a drink, so his friend asked him where he found it. For a long time he would not say, and then only when the cobra promised not to reveal it or injure anyone. " Down the road," said the ticpolonga, " you will find a baby in a bath ; but unless you promise not to hurt the baby I won't tell you where it is to be found." On faithfully assenting to this the ticpolonga told the cobra where it was to be found, and off he went, found the baby in the bath, crept up the side, and was putting its head in to drink, when the baby hit out at it. Instantly the cobra reared itself up and bit the child. The ticpolonga's voice was heard behind, " I felt I couldn't trust you, and I was right," so he fell on the cobra, and they fought till the cobra was killed. Ever since then these two snakes repeat ancient history when they meet. But to go back to the temples. In one of them, 28 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ or perhaps I should say at one of them, as there is not much interior left, we saw endless little bits of rags tied on to the trees and pillars. These were the votive offerings of crowds of pilgrims from Burmah, who come at the full moon to worship. Traces of ashes showed where they had had their little charcoal fires for cooking their food. I was rather glad my visit did not coincide with theirs, as these religious pilgrims are apt to be a trifle dirty. One very interesting bit of native custom I saw by the wayside : a Hindu worshipping in the forest. At the foot of a large tree he had laid a huge banana leaf, and a cocoanut was placed on another green leaf in a kind of bowl, with offerings of rice and grains. By the side a fire was burning, by which I saw a handful of charcoal, and a small boy was sitting watching the blue smoke making fantastic wreaths as it rose up. From the sublime to the ridiculous is not far, and almost immediately after, I was watching another native trying to wash his bullock in a small stream. He was in primeval costume, except for some wonderful things in his ears, and was trying his best to get his animal's face scrubbed. I got as near as I dared with my camera, but the beast was so restive that I did not care to stay for the chance of being soused with water as it rushed out. The evenings were delightful ; the tropical night has infinite charm, the constant singing and chir- ruping of the insects making every place alive with sound, the huge fireflies dancing up in the air so Doing pujah " by the Wayside in Ceylon. THE BURIED CITIES 29 high in the trees that one sometimes wondered if they were stars falling. The day we left Anarad- hapura we had an early start, at 7 a.m. ; the dew was thick on the ground, although the sun was up. The atmosphere of the carriages was some- what stuffy, as may be imagined with a temperature of 92 deg. at least. In the very middle of the day, many degrees hotter, from 12 to 4, we had to wait at Polgahawela, which is the junction of the up- trains for Kandy. There was a fair rest-house, to which we walked in blazing sun, and were thankful to sit on the verandah in the shade. We managed to get some slight refreshments, although they expect you to wire in advance ; I presume if you do so from a station or two down, they kill a fowl and it is ready when you get there ! The fowls you get at dinner were generally running about the compound at lunch time ; but if they are buried in the earth for a couple of hours they become tender. Our luggage was left at the station, and by results we found had been in the sun all the time. On our arrival at Kandy the boxes abso- lutely steamed when opened ; the clothes were hot to the touch, and one bag was a mass of black ants , they were thick in it, hopelessly so : we slew thousands, and then had to send it out to be cleaned ! The railway from Polgahawela surpasses itself in beauty as it winds up the lovely Dekanda valley now curving acutely, again running under the perpendicular side of a mountain a thousand feet above, and having a sheer drop of thousands of feet below. One place is aptly called Sensation Rock. 30 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ The view is of mountains rolling in the distance, black with the dense forest of jungle, and below in the plains can be seen the beautiful tender green of the terraced rice-fields, while nearer one notices flowering shrubs and masses of creepers hanging from rock to rock, almost across the deep ravines, where the water comes rushing down in foaming waterfalls. Blue jays were often flying by, glinting their incomparable blue wings in the sunshine. In one part the mountain is 2,500 feet above, and a drop of i, 600 feet down a sheer precipice on the other side testifies to the wonderful engineering skill required for such a line. It is thought so much of, that it is a usual thing for passengers on the mail-boats, waiting for the coaling in Colombo, to come up by train to Kandy, and go back in the day. Such a very exhausting journey led one to expect great things from Kandv, and I was not disappointed ; a more beautiful spot could hardly be found nestling in the hollow of the moun- tains, with its wealth of delights for the eye the gorgeous riot of vegetation, the colour, the lofty palms, the lake, the grandeur of the scenery, and the ever-mingling variety of natives in their quaint costumes, or, rather, I should say lack of costume, for a comb and a bath towel are often the full dress of the Cingalese. I wonder why a bath towel, particularly if it has a red border and a fringe, should be such a delight ; sometimes it is worn as a turban, at others as a skirt ! CHAPTER V. KANDY. arrival at Kandy was, I must say, very welcome, as we had taken from 7-30 in the morning till 6 p.m. to do 86 miles in a torrid train tempera- ture ! The thought of a long night's rest was very alluring ; but there was a devil-dance going on near the hotel, and the yells and hoots and tom-toms gave no chance for sleep. Next morning we made for the temple of the Tooth, thinking a service was held at 9 a.m. This is where Buddha's tooth is carefully preserved, and only shown to the public on the great festival, when it is carried round Kandy in a Perrahera, or proces- sion, with a great deal of ceremony. The temple is enclosed by a large moat, in which turtles are lazity swimming, or else sunning them- selves on the side. Some extraordinary frescoes are painted on the walls of the entrance, showing the torments of the evil-doers in the next world ; and it is strange to glance from that to the flower- sellers squatting down round the doorway, with round plates full of heads of flowers ready for votive offerings. The temple flower, the Plumiera, creamy white, jasmine, oleander, marigolds, make the atmo- sphere sweet with their odour, quite a redeeming 32 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ feature in that very smelly place ; every worshipper is supposed to bring a flower. Winding one's way up a steep narrow staircase, whose entrance is guarded by elephant's tusks, one comes to a wonderful door inlaid with ivory and silver; we pass through, and the priests wished to close it behind us, but I protested strongly, having a great objection to being shut in those sacred fanes, the religion of whose worshippers makes them such fanatics, that one is never sure what those priests might do. For all their sanctity, one of their many devils may suddenly prompt them to say to a poor defenceless female, " Your money or your life," more especially when women are counted of no worth there. A curtain was now drawn away, after an interval of waiting, during which some candles were lighted in front of the shrine, which is visible behind massive iron bars. In this place lies the great tooth, an object of devoted reverence to 400 millions of people stupendous thought ! The libranr is full of interest, having a rare collection of manuscripts written on dried narrow strips of palm leaf boiled and dried. The leaves are fastened together, put between boards in a cover, and are called olas. A priest is in charge, but is too dignified to ask backsheesh for showing his treasures, so the guide thoughtfully suggests it. The way out from the temple was lined by fearful wrecks of humanity who lie about begging ; by their numbers they must find it a profitable occupation. Just beyond the temple there is an Arts and Crafts School, where the natives make brasswork, ear- KANDY 33 rings, embroideries, etc., and one saw them squat- ting at their work in very primitive shed-like places, sometimes helping their hands by their feet. The principal drives about Kandy have been named after the wives of governors of Ceylon Lady Horton's Drive, Lady Anderson's Road, Lady Macarthy's Drive, etc. We went by rick- shaw along most of them ; how those men will run, in spite of the heat, which they appear to feel as much as white people, for they perspire freely. In one part, a small boy was enlisted to push up hill ; he insisted on showing off his English education, which he had had in the schools, but it was very pidgeon English at best ; still, he was a very intelli- gent youngster. If our system of education is not better there than in England, alas for the natives ! a smattering of this, a smattering of that, and good at nothing. Many of the roads are completely overhung with tall trees, giving a welcome shelter from the blazing rays of the tropical sun, talipot palms, the highest of all, with wonderful flowers produced once in 100 years, after which the tree suddenly dies, cocoanut palms with clusters of nuts at the top, coffee shrubs, daturas, crotons forming hedges, and all the beautiful plants we call stove-plants in England. Butterflies and birds add their quota of colour to the radiant whole, making them never-to-be-forgotten rides in the lazy lotus land of the mysterious East. Later in the day we had a gharry, and drove for miles in equally lovely scenery round the lake, along the Wace Road, up hill and down dale, till 34 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ we came to the village of Katugastota, where are kept the sacred elephants which take their bath in the evening. About nine of these huge creatures were being washed in the river, thoroughly enjoying themselves. Their coolies were scrubbing them as they lay on their sides, and every now and then they would fill their trunks with water and give them- selves a shower bath ! How we envied them being in the cool water ! When they had finished, their coolies brought some of them up to the bank to speak to us, or, rather, the elephants brought the coolies, some riding on one leg while the animal walked up on three ; some little black urchins pro- vided bits of sugar-cane in return for a few cents, and the lordly beasts deigned to take some from our hands with their trunks, and soon tucked them into their mouths. In our rambles we often saw the Buddhist priests walking about. They are clad in long orange- yellow muslin garments down to their feet, with one arm and shoulder bare; their heads are com- pletely shaven, and they either carry a large dried palm leaf, which is most picturesque, or an ordinary umbrella, to shield their bare heads from the sun. By the way, the umbrella trade in Ceylon must be good, for nearly every native carries an umbrella, and in truth it is needed under such a vertical sun. That evening we were not satisfied with our day, so took rickshaws again, and went off by the lake to another hotel to see some friends ; and really the night was as delightful in its way as the day stars were shining through the trees, the fireflies KANDY 35 rivalling them in their brightness, the grasshoppers and crickets and nocturnal chirping creatures making a most harmonious sound, and the still and warm air was a joy, increased tenfold by thoughts of January in England ! The next day we went to the Peradeniya Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens as they should be desig- nated ; they are realty a Government department for improvement of agriculture and horticulture; all kinds of instructions are given to the natives for the successful growing of their crops, and prevention of insect pests, blight, etc. The ground covers 150 acres, and is the most charming spot imaginable. The road to it, by driving from Kandy, is about four miles long, full of interest with its weird huts, many closely boarded up by way of door, with a narrow chink through which one often sees eyes peering; presumably there is a way out by the back, but what the atmosphere must be like inside those places defies imagination ! Little black babies would be seen playing in the dust by the roadside, dressed save the mark ! in a necklace of beads round the waist ! Here and there would be a gram seller, patiently waiting for customers. Gram is rather similar to dried peas, and is considered a great delicacy, so is sold by weight, the scales for which are very small. Then, of course, the betel nut sellers, with their wares neatly curled up in the large green leaves. Occa- sionally one sees a beggar, usually some poor maimed creature, often and often blind people being led along by another. The road is for the most 3 6 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ part well shaded by the palms and other trees ; but the dust is distinctly objectionable, and if it were not for the delight of watching the natives by the way, one might with far more comfort have gone by train. The Peradeniya Paradise contains almost every known tropical tree or plant. The red cotton tree is one of the most attractive, as it attains a great height, and is covered in January with masses of dazzling scarlet flowers right up to the top, making a most imposing show. Later in the year the flowers give place to large pods, which, when fully ripe, burst and shower forth their cotton in white balls like snow. There are avenues of palms, of rubbers, of bamboos, pepper trees, cloves, nutmegs, cocoa ; in fact, anything that grows anywhere in the tropics all round the world can be found here. It seemed like fairy land to wander round, picking up cloves under one tree, nutmegs with the glorious red mace round them so fresh looking from another, pulling strands of rubber from the stem of the tree where, on being cut, it oozed out ; watching the fox-headed bats, or flying foxes, enormous creatures with bodies as large as a rabbit, and whose extended wings reach to four feet, and which, when shot, if only wounded, often show fight, and sharply too, with teeth and claws. In the daytime they hang upside down on the tops of the tallest trees and sleep, except when their slumbers are rudely inter- rupted by the shrieks and yells of small black boys, who are willing to show you how they fly for a backsheesh of a few cents. Herbaceous borders KANDY 37 glow with colour, only the flowers are hot-house ones for want of a better name ; banks of crotons, too, which also grow wild in the country around. Added to all this beauty another feature is seen in the broad river Mahaweli-Ganga, which almost forms a circle round the gardens. The bamboos grow best near it, making great high clumps, and having such big stems that one can hardly realise they are really only a grass. The rate of bamboo growth is tremendously rapid; in the rains they will grow at the rate of twelve inches a day, and some even declare you can see them growing while you wait ! Amongst this exuberance of vegetation one glass-house is seen, and at first one wonders why, when everything is growing out of doors so luxuriantly ; but it is, in fact, to protect desert plants from the rich moisture of the place ! There are, indeed, conservatories or shade-houses for orchids ; these are practically pergolas, the creepers over the tops of the framework doing all that is necessary in providing a welcome screen from the blazing rays of the sun. Groups of natives were sitting round in a circle in one part out for a picnic, and apparently enjoying the place to the full. The drives round are capitally laid out, so that one can dare I confess such laziness ! be driven slowly about under the shade of the trees by the banks of the river, stopping every now and then when our driver wanted to shew something which he thought specially worth attention. After the usual midday rest we " ricked," shall I call it other- wise, took rickshaws, not wanting to lose one 38 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ minute indoors from that fascinating scenery. Should one enjoy it all as much again, I wonder? Some say one ought never to revisit a place which one has once enjoyed to the full; but, then, it is Nature, and one can never tire of her, even in her plainest northern garb; how much less fear, then, should one have of seeing all her infinite variety and exuberance again here ? Certainly, if one has been looking for the Garden of Eden, one must admit it is at Kandy. That evening we wandered to another temple, up and down shady roads, past the waterfall caused by the overflow of the lake between a gorge, where the natives delight to assemble, sitting under the fall itself, so that the water may cool their dusky forms ; or playing in the pool below, where the dhobies may be at work washing linen at the same time ! There is a very large market in Kandy, and quantities of vegetables are brought and stacked up in great heaps, besides many different cereals for the Cingalee's fare alone. The English bar- racks are situated on the side of a hill at the back of the town, in a nice open situation, and the Tommies and the Indian soldiers are well cared for. The town itself is of good size ; four or five years ago it had about 25,000 inhabitants, one hundred or so being English, presumably that includes some of the officers, the clergy of the English Church, and possibly some subordinates in different busi- nesses. CHAPTER VI. TEA GARDENS AND NUWARA ELIYA. REGRETFULLY I left Kandy, but only to discover fresh joys on a tea estate in the Hatton district that railway line also is wonderfully interesting, for its climbing and its scenery, the many turns the train takes gives vistas of perhaps a drop of a thousand feet or so, then a verdant valley, and all up the sides of the hill opposite, as far as eye can see, are the even rows and rows of the tea shrub, the clearness of the atmosphere enabling one to see the shrubs as distinctly as possible. At Hatton I left the train, and started on a sixteen-mile drive for the bungalow up in the hills. Ceylon road-makers loved zig-zags, sharp curves anything but a straight line; and this road was a very good specimen. One began to think that the money spent on cutting out the road under the rocks might have gone to make a bridge, which would have solved the difficulty, and shortened the route. Tombstones adorn the road sides at intervals ; the first I saw I imagined might have been for someone who had been killed by some accident, but, passing many others, I asked my friend the reason why. It is because the natives like to be buried there, as it is not so lonely by a high road ! I should have thought the survivors 4 o TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ would have preferred to have them further away, as they are extremely superstitious, and might be afraid of the "afreets" being about after dark. It happened to be one of the native holidays, quite a festival, and no tea-pluckers were at work ; but in the villages, as we passed, were crowds of people; and in one was a group of devil-dancers, wearing extraordinary masks and skins of animals, making awful musical ( ?) sounds with various instruments the tom-tom, of course, not being the least in evidence. At the end of the cart-road, as it is called, a walk of about a mile was the next part of the programme, up the hillside across a purling stream, through the tea plantation, and then the bungalow was reached a most charming house in a terraced garden full of sweet-smelling flowers, shrubs and trees. One day was spent climbing up into the jungle perhaps 2,000 feet or so the home of the elephant, leopard, elk, monkey, " and other wild beasts," as the children say. Unfortunately, they take their rest in the daytime, so we did not see any of the denizens of that primeval forest. Think of sitting out in the shade 6,000 feet up for in the sun it would be courting sunstroke. What delight it was the blazing sun and yet the exhilarating rarefied air; the scrambling over the brushwood, under the trees, along the leafy glades sometimes so thick that it was almost dark ; short cuts here, and shorter ones there, when one came down rather more quickly than one went up, with some of the earth slipping too, all added to the excitement of the moment NUWARA ELIYA 41 the exploring of the unknown. That night there was a small thunderstorm. It seemed as if we were to see another wonder in the island ; the sheet lightning over the hills, towards Adam's Peak, was superb; huge flares illuminating the whole sky came up without the thunder, which passed off soon. The visit to the tea factory was not the least of the pleasures of that visit. The Tamil coolies gathering the green tips, with the cup-shaped baskets on their backs ; the women with saris over their heads, wearing rings in their ears and noses, and anklets and bracelets, make a very effective picture on the hillside. When their baskets are full, they bring them down on their heads to the factory. The plucking, by the way, is as important a feature as any part of the business, as only the tip of the shoots is gathered. When they arrive at the entrance, the baskets are weighed, and the amount is entered in a book. Sometimes a woman carries about fifty pounds quite easily on her head ; a helping hand is given her to get it up again, and off she goes to the room, where it is thrown out on to a huge heap, there to be quickly strewn on rows of shelves of hessian (of jute manufacture) in the drying^room, which has to be light, warm and dry. In ordinary days the tea will dry or "wither" in about twenty-two to twenty-four hours ; then it is all swept off these shelves, and sent down a shoot to the rolling-machine, usually worked by water- power ; then to another machine to be fired, or dried by currents of hot air, from 210 deg. to 218 deg. From this the tea comes out dry and brittle, and 42 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ is next put on the sifter, which has three or four grades of sieves also worked by machinery by which the tea is sifted into different receptacles at each shelf by means of shoots or spouts. After this, it is ready for packing in lead-lined chests, which are again shaken by machinery, so that the boxes may have every chink and corner filled up with tea. Finally, it is covered with a lead top, soldered down to keep all air out, and then placed on a coolie's head to be marched down to the station, which in this case means a long way. The superin- tendents have to be very sharp over the coolies, to see there is no leakage of stealing the tea, for instance, and selling it "on their own." It is an interesting life healthy, full of hard work certainly, and very profitable withal ! I should have mentioned seeing the seed-beds in the early morning, higher up on the hill, as tea is started from seeds, not from cuttings. The beds are some- what similar to our asparagus-beds, and have to be kept constantly watered and shaded. Of water there is generally no scarcity ; the streams running down from the mountain tops irrigate the gardens and turn the machinery, as well as supplying the houshold tanks. The climate is very equable, and rain falls oftener than in the low-lying country, so that all vegetation is refreshed. The journey to Nuwara Eliya is another amazing wonder; the line rises 1,000 feet in six miles, in one place. It is most extraordinary the way it twists and curves ; rising so perceptibly that one seems no sooner to have left the station than one is NUWARA ELIYA 43 looking down on to its roof ; onwards through a deep and thickly -wooded gorge, and then on to the tea estates. At the bottom of the valley the Nanuoya river tears along, fed by the waterfalls which come rushing and foaming down from the heights some being crossed by bridges for the train. Nuwara Eliya itself is on a plain, the up-country station so deservedly loved by the dwellers on the sea coast and the low country generally, as the air in that high altitude is most bracing, and gives new life to the jaded and enervated inhabitants, who come there to avoid the hot season, as they call it. I was there in their cold season ; but as the thermo- meter was often at 92 deg. and 94 deg., and as the heat was a damp heat, it felt another 10 deg. hotter, I rather wondered what the " hot season " was like. The small town, as I suppose it would be called, lies at the foot of Pidurutallagalla, which is 8,200 feet; but as Nuwara Eliya is itself 6,000 feet up, a better designation would be to say it lies two-thirds of the way up this mountain ! A delightful lake lies almost in the centre of it, and a stream runs through the middle of the valley into it. It is a lively little place; the finest golf links out of Scotland it claims to have but I have already seen many places with that reputation ! Tennis clubs, shooting clubs, fishing clubs, with their usual Oriental festivities dances many and oft in the season ; and as for the race week it is the aim and object of every individual in Ceylon, I should imagine. A charming drive leads one for six miles down 44 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ a precipitous road to the Hakgalla gardens, which are deservedly famous ; but, of course, they are nothing to equal those at Peradeniya. It is very sheltered, having an almost perpendicular peak above it of 1,600 feet or so, and here are grown specimens from tropical and temperate regions from all parts of the world English flowers side by side with Australian daisies, the oak on friendly terms with the palm ! joined, may-be, by a local creeper, which winds up the trees, and whose stem thickens to a great size, and becoming absolutely hard, kills the trees it has honoured with its attentions. From one part of the garden one looks out over the valley to the place where the Boer prisoners were encamped during their sojourn in Ceylon. The way back to Nuwara Eliya was a slow climb along the winding road, lined with lovely flowers sweet smelling ones, little blossoms, bigger ones, Arum lilies in any out-of-the-way corner flourishing happily ; monkeys taking their siestas in the trees, and no doubt leopards and elk in the thicker forests, in which it is not safe to wander unarmed. What is so absolutely delightful in Ceylon is that, even in the cold season, the trees are never bare of leaves ; or, if one or two specimens shed their leaves all at once, amongst such a crowd of others it is not noticed. The foot gharri-wallah, who seemed to hang on to the step of the carriage, gathered me various flowers on the way, proffering them in a gentle manner, as if he really wished to give pleasure, although probably an extra bit of back- sheesh was at the back of his mind ! The driver's NUWARA ELIYA 45 vocabulary was very limited as to English, which is a great pity, as one loses so much information. It is quite extraordinary how very little English is spoken by these country natives, although it is one of our Crown Colonies. CHAPTER VII. COLOMBO AGAIN. THE journey back from Nuwara Eliya to Colombo was very long and hot from early morn to dewy eve but passing through that gorgeous scenery one forgot its wearisome length, and yet there were people who played Bridge nearly all the day ! One wondered why they were there at all; Bridge could be played every day at home; but that radiantly lovely scenery was just a day's journey in one's life, and perhaps might never be repeated. Well, their storehouse of memories would be the poorer. A day on a rubber estate was one of my next experiences. We were to motor out about thirty miles to lunch with some friends, so at 9 a.m. (if we were in England, I should add on one fine morning) we started a party of three, with a chauffeur who was a Eurasian, and who was con- fident he knew the way. So he did for about twenty miles, but then we got completely lost. At first the road out of Colombo ran straight enough one long line under the palms, past the native huts with their usual something lying out in the sun to dry, cocoanut husks or shells, palm leaves, even fish curing, and always babies and children and dogs. Oh! those pi dogs; poor mangy wretches! COLOMBO AGAIN 47 Through the cinnamon fields we went, by the fields of the small Palmyra, which will soon grow to a great height. This species of palm produces a kind of sugar ; from the reeds flour is obtained ; the shells of the fruit make a good sort of fuel; its wood is hard enough for building purposes, or roofing; its leaves thatch their huts, make their fences, their baskets, sleeping mats, and many other things ; and the leaves even can be utilised as umbrellas by the Buddhist priest, who having always the head clean-shaven, carries a palm leaf as umbrella. No wonder this Palmyra is cultivated when it can be so profitable, rivalling almost the uses of the banana in the West Indies. But to go back to the motor. When our chauffeur had become doubtful of the way, he condescended to ask what we should do. My friend knew the country fairly well, and could talk in the vernacular to him, but the Eurasian was so proud of being ' English, quite English," that he would not ask his way in Cingalese, replying, when we insisted on his doing so, that they spoke a different dialect, and he could not understand them. He tried a fort place, drove up to a factory, wandered hither and thither, till at last we passed a real Englishman in a cart, who explained to us how to go. Well, we had to turn back, but to do so on that narrow road had to drive nearly two miles or more before we could turn. We certainly saw a good deal of the country by this means, before we got to the rubber plantation itself. Starting on our return early, with the remembrance of our run out there 48 TRAVELS EAST OF SUEZ very present in our minds, we took clear directions what turn to take ; but alas ! the Eurasian was either wilful or stupid, for he shot round a turn to the left along what he must have seen was only a bullock-cart road, over a flat wooden bridge, which scrunched and crumpled up behind us ! As soon as he was over that, he seemed to realise he was on the wrong road. Then came the difficulty again of turning the large car and of course on coming up to the bridge the unexpected had hap- pened. We had broken the bridge too badly to get the car over. Here was a quandary. Miles away from any white habitations ! I had visions of the car either standing there till next day, or sitting in the water between the deep banks if the bridge was attempted. In less time than it takes to write, about sixty or seventy natives appeared, from nowhere it seemed. Such an event did not come their way often ; and even babies were brought out to look on. One similarity there is between blacks and whites a crowd collects just as easily in either hemisphere ! At last some of the more intelligent took in what was wanted, and ran off, rather to our dismay, as we had not divined their intentions. But soon they returned with waggling planks torn from somewhere jungle or house or stack but such wiggly- waggly ones were no use. So off they went again and brought more, still very slender ones. But it was a case of quantity if quality was not to be had, and these were placed in position, duly inspected by our friend and the chauffeur, and the car was run up to it, then back, u be C